ip journal

Russia's pursuit of politically motivated yet economically irrational behavior has shown that decades of attempted economic integration between Russia and the West have failed. Attempts to engage Moscow through its Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) look similarly futile. Germany's retreat from this strategy will have long-term consequences for both financial and political investment in Russia.

ip journal

On foreign policy fiascos, blind spots, and future action outlines

2014 was a mind-boggling year, marking the start of profound changes in world affairs, but also in the way Berlin thinks about foreign policy. Part of this is the “Review 2014” process Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier launched earlier this year, inviting over 60 political observers, commentators, and think tankers from across the world to put their thoughts down on paper. IP JOURNAL offers a critical overview.

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Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, Chinese foreign policy is becoming more ambitious. Consequently, new China policies are needed around the globe. Taking a reality check, Berlin, in particular, will have to come up with creative responses. As long as it keeps its competitive edge, however, Germany, and Europe in general, should be able to build on past niche diplomacy.

Ever since President Joachim Gauck’s much-discussed speech it back in January, Germany’s “new foreign policy” debate has suffered from being reduced to the aspect of “militarization” of Berlin’s external affairs. In fact, “international responsibility” involves four distinct dimensions, with the question of “instruments,” including military ones, coming last, not first.

Those who work in foreign policy are always traveling. This is a truism with consequences, since a politician who is away from her home district will have less contact with voters and ultimately lower chances for reelection. So how can we recruit young talent interested in global affairs? For starters, raise the status of foreign policy on the political agenda.

Germany is gearing up for something unusual: an interesting general election. A year before polling day, the opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) has nominated Peer Steinbrück as their man to unseat Chancellor Angela Merkel. The 65 year-old Hamburg native, with his quick wit and sharp tongue, is a stand-out figure in the often staid German political landscape. He is a risky candidate for his party – but also for the current German leader. Put simply, Peer Steinbrück is everything Angela Merkel is not.

For decades, Germany has been able to afford unique military and fiscal-political restraint. But all that is changing: first, Germany started participating in international military missions, and now with the European Stability Mechanism and the ECB’s growing political role, the swan song is being sung for the old Bundesbank philosophy. Of all possible times, Berlin has chosen this moment of peak economic strength to abdicate its decades-long special position.

Picture the scene: Berlin, 2035. In a packed theater auditorium a teary-eyed audience rises to its feet as a wizened old woman with a familiar bronze helmet of hair is wheeled onto the stage. Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is sharing an emotional, nostalgic reunion with Angela Merkel, three decades after she first took office.

The debt crisis and efforts to save the euro are overshadowing necessary reforms to Europe’s energy policy and the further expansion of the Common Foreign and Security Policy. However, the EU’s credibility in terms of its ability to take effective action depends on the coherent coordination of monetary, energy, and security policy issues.

Chancellor Merkel, with a big delegation in tow, is on another government consultation in Beijing, the second trip to China this year. With German exports to China rising, Chinese investments in Germany growing, and Germany's European partners struggling - European nerves are unsettled by this Berlin-Beijing courtship.

After the diplomatic debacle over the decision last year to abstain from a UN Security Council vote on intervention in Libya, Germany's Foreign Office might yet earn some redemption for its active support in helping Syrian opposition leaders plan for what comes after Bashar al-Assad's ouster.

During a visit to the Bundeswehr’s Führungsakademie in Hamburg, German President Joachim Gauck was quite upfront. He called upon the country to develop a more positive attitude toward military missions abroad and criticized the German tendency of “not wanting to know.” Gauck took his chances on a delicate issue to spur a debate on German security policy, which is still notable mostly for its absence. Outspokenness seems to be his strategy, and so far, it has been successful.

Something strange is going on behind the scenes of the eurozone crisis. If some poor soul ever comes up with the idea of dramatizing the last four years, they would do well by naming the piece "Waiting for Angela."

The Bundeswehr has been transformed in the past decade. Fifty years ago it started out with a mission of territorial defense–and avoided military involvement in the campaigns of its major allies. After unification and the end of the cold war, however, it routinely joins operations in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan. Yet even as the Bundeswehr’s mission has expanded, its numbers and its budget have shrunk.

An economic hegemon is a land that is big enough economically and gains enough from an international regime itself, even if no other country contributes. Germany was the nice guy who picked up the EU check. Now it should do the same for the globe.

Germany and Europe’s security and stability have grown since the end of the cold war. The old “German question” has been solved. Embedded in European integration, a sovereign Germany has now taken on a very new role of sharing joint responsibility for maintaining international stability and order. To maximize effective crisis management in a world in which no single nation can solve global problems, the UN Security Council system must be revised–and Germany belongs at the table.

As the outgoing Social Democratic-Green government hands the reins over to the conservative-Social Democratic “grand” coalition, it’s time to assess red-green foreign policy over the last seven years. The good news is Germany’s participation today in international intervention. The bad news is a lingering desire to cock a snook at the United States.